The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group works to help people whose rights have been violated and investigates cases involving such abuse, as well as assessing the overall human rights situation in Ukraine. The Group also seeks to develop awareness of human rights issues through public events and its various publications

On Sunday evening Vitaliy Prymak, head of the NGO Youth ACTS and member of the Rivne branch of the Maidan movement, was beaten up by two thugs while on night duty at the Rivne EuroMaidan. Civic activist and friend, Mykhailo Lebed visited Prymak in hospital and heard firsthand what happened. Prymak says that the two approached him, pretending to be drunk and wanting to talk about the sense of their protest. One of them may work for the security service or police, Lebed says, explaining that the city is small making it easy to detect people who’ve made themselves noticed at other protests. In this respect, it is relevant that when, at a particular point, Prymak used his phone to dial 102 (the police) the louts were quite relaxed saying “phone whoever you like”.

The police did not turn up for around 15-20 minutes which is also indicative given the size of the city, and the distance to the nearest police station of maximum 5 minutes. After walking away to decide what to do, the two thugs returned and with the words “that’s what you get for Europe” hit Prymak twice on the head. They then walked off quite slowly. Prymak rang the police number yet again. He is now in the neurosurgical ward of a city hospital with suspected concussion.